Ania sat by the smoldering fire, lost in thought. As she watched the flames, she recognised the sound of Seth's footsteps heading her way. She did her best to ignore them, but it was a pointless venture, as Seth sat down next to her. Ania couldn't help but glance at her dark skinned friend. He looked solom, but then again, he always did. The only time you got a smile out of him was when he was drunk.
"How are we going to make this mission a success?" Ania asked after a moment of silence.
Seth scoffed, "who knows, its a suicide run if you ask me."
Ania hummed. "What are the others doing?"
    "Aysha and Jerry went to find some food to eat, perhaps a nearby village. Hellena is settling the horses, and Benjamin, well, you know him." Ania chuckled, "Passed out drunk in his tent?" Seth nodded.
"... we should come up with a plan, we arent that far from the city now, and we need to be prepared." Ania said. "That would be a great idea, except we don't know the layout of the city, we don't even know if the target lives there anymore-"
    "Why wouldn't she still live there?" Hellena piped in, having come back from feeding the horses. "It was her childhood home, and, every time she acts up, 'tis always from the direction of that city." Seth was about to argue back, when Ania stopped him, pointing toward the distant forest. Aysha and Jerry's silhouettes were sprinting toward the camp, what seemed to be black smoke pursuing them through the trees, threatening to engulf them.
    Seth stood, fear flashing across his face briefly before going back to his traditional stoicness. "Grab your weapons, Hellena, see if you can wake up Ben, if not, leave him." Seth commanded. Hellena ran towards Benjamin's tent while Ania and Seth dispersed. Ania jogged to her tent, after a bit of wrestling with the cloth door, she grabbed her Axe and joined Seth. The smoke had already consumed Aysha and Jerry and was headed for them. It emitted an eerie sound, something from another world, growing louder and considerably bigger as it approached. Hellena appeared next to her, "Ben won't wake!" Hellena said, having to yell over the ever growing noise.
    "Leave him!" Seth yelled back the reply, "he wouldn't have been much help anyway!" Suddenly everything went black, the noise gone. Ania looked around, calling out to her companions, but no answers came back. She felt as though she was suffocating, as though her eyes wouldn't open. There was nothing, no-one, just an endless void.

Ania sat up in a cold sweat, her breathing ragged. She pulled her knees close, hugging them. "Its ok, it was just a dream..." Ania whispered to herself, doing her best to ignore the empty bedroll next to her. Eventually, Ania's breathing evened out, and she was left to listen to silence, save for the wind and the steeds.
It wasn't long before the silence broke. Hearing a grunt and what sounded like a cloak whipping in the wind not too far away, Ania stood, grabbed her battle axe resting on the ground beside her and cautiously peeking through her tent entrance, looking around, she glanced a figure rather close to the campfire, the figure seemed to be female, dressed in some of the strangest clothes Ania had ever seen. A thin grey outer coat with a hood, but ended before the small of her back, it covered a darker grey under shirt. The female's trousers were blue, made of fabric Ania had never seen before, and her shoes were some sort of shiny leather in the form of boots. Assassin maybe? Wasn't the queens style, but not out of the question. Ania silently stepped towards the girl, lifting the axe off her shoulder and above her head. Using her white feathered wings for balance, Ania heaved her weathered axe down upon the stranger's back.

The stranger turned, just in time to see the weapon being hauled toward her. Barely avoiding the axe, the foreigner stepped back, slipping on the snow-covered rocks and falling into the fire pit, which blazed with new life.

The stranger groaned, sitting up. The flames licked at the lady's clothes, singing rims and seams, but her tanned skin remained untouched.

"What the HELL!? Why the fuck are you attacking me?" The stranger stared at her, flabbergasted.
Ania gawked at Ember, setting her axe on her shoulder. "Well, your no assassin, that's for sure, and you are most definitely not commonplace, you dew-beater." the former army captain said, gesturing toward the fire, but the outsider ignored it.

"The fuck is that suppossed to mean? You got wings!"

"Oi! Your the one to break into my camp and be completely untouched by flames!" Ania's wings flared up involuntarily.

The stranger finally noticed the flames slowly crawling up her body. She immediately jumped out of the fire pit, fumbling to throw off her outer coat. "WHAT THE FUCK?! What is this jumanji type shit?!" the stranger sank to the ground, seemingly losing her composure. "Where am I!?"
"I suggest you answer my questions first if you don't want to end up with an axe in your head!" Ania snapped.
Ember was about to talk back but stopped herself, eyeing the axe. Taking a deep breath, the stranger spoke again "Fine, what are your questions?" She asked scooting to a log and pulling herself up.

Ania scanned Ember, assessing her body language. "What is your name? And how did you find this camp?"
The newcomer crossed her arms, doing her best to look composed. "Ember, Ember Firedancer, and to be real with you I do not know how, or why, I'm here. Actually, I don't remember anything from before I showed up here. Now answer my question."
"I have more questions, you need to wait until I am done." Ania was utterly done with this nonsense.
Ember rolled her eyes in slight annoyance, "hurry up, you're getting on my nerves." Ania paced slightly. "Who do you work for? How did you stand in that fire without being charred alive?" Ember scoffed, "Have you not heard of one question at a time? Who would I be working for? I would never obey orders unless it somehow benefitted me." She then looked at the fire as if it would suddenly become sentient and attack her, "and if im being honest, I am just as confused as you on... that." Ania gave a slight look of disbelief before speaking again: "very well then, ask me your questions."

Ember stood up as well, approaching Ania like a wolf stalking a deer, "finally, what's your name?"
"Jones, Ania." Ania set her axe down to rest on a log before laying down on said log,stretching out on it. "Ok, Jones, if that even is your real name, Where are we?"
Ania opened an eye, glancing at Ember. "The kingdom of Eichenwalde, couple clicks outside of the capital city. The city of Glore." Ember surveyed Ania for a minute. "That's some nice armor, Jones," she said, gesturing to the intricate silver plates covering the individual. The armour had gold trimming, a gold sun engraved in the center of the chestplate, and the headpiece resembled a crown, but one meant for battle, in fact, the whole of the armour seemed as though it was royal. Scarlet hair flowed down Ania's back, and her wings protruded from her armor gracefully. "Where'd you get it?"
Ania glanced down at her armor, then back up at Ember, suddenly defencive, "It's none of your damn business, Rakefire!"
Ember, caught off guard, held up her hands. "Ok, fine then, Jones. I'll leave it be."

Ember glanced around, seeing the multiple tents scattered around. "Mind giving me the tour?"
Ania stood back up from the log, looking at Ember in disbelief, "please tell me your joking, you can't stay here."
Ember looked back to Ania, seemingly offended. "Well, where else am I supposed to go? I got some weird amnesia shit going on, you can't just kick me out!" Ember threw her hands up for emphasis. Ania stared at Ember in bewilderment, "what is amnesia, you Lubberwort?! You know what? I don't want to know." Ania held up her hand before Ember could say anything.

To hearing two pairs of footsteps, Ania swiftly grabbed her axe and turned towards the sound, seeing two sopping wet, and shivering boys. One of them was significantly taller than the rest of them, short, but shaggy brown hair stuck to his forehead, he wore similar clothes to Ember, a thin grey over-shirt, a thicker white under shirt, blue trousers made of the same material as Ember's and a very light brown color of shoes, with a weird contraption on his wrist. The boy next to him was short, still taller than Ania though, he wore the same trousers as the taller lad, a black sort of jacket, an abnormally long white scarf around his neck, and boots, all of which were soaked. His black hair was sticking up, as if he was trying to style it, but it froze before he could.
As the pair approached the camp, the taller fellow waved and smiled while the shorter one called a greeting. When they reached Ania and Ember, Ania started her interrogation. "Who are you? What are your names?"
The tall guy answered for both of them, Ember mumbling something about one question at a time, "I'm Mason, and this here is Misha." Mason said, patting 'Misha' on the head. 'Misha' glared at Mason. "How many times do I have to tell you? My name is not Misha!" He turned his attention to Ania and Ember, "My name is Adrien, Adrien Collins-"
"Like Misha Collins!"
"Yes, thank you, Mason." Adrien said, scowling at him. Mason pouted, and sat by the fire. "What about you two?"
"Oh!" Ember said, bouncing in excitement. "I'm Ember, Firedancer, and this here-" Ember paused to point at Ania, "this is Jones." She finished, looking proud of herself. The smug look on her face quickly dissipated as Ania stared daggers into her, and she went and sat by Mason.
Ania held her hand out to Adrien, "my name is Ania Jones, it's swell to meet you Adrien Collins." she said as Adrien took her hand and shook it. "I'll go find you and your companion some quilts, then we'll talk. Have a seat at the fire and dry off."

Ania eventually found quilts in one of the tents stationed by the horses, when she returned, the three were talking and laughing like old friends. Ania tossed the two boys their respective blankets and sat down, facing the three. "Now, where'd you come from?"
Mason pointed behind him, up a cliff overlooking the camp, "There's a frozen pond up there. Both me and Adrien woke up in it, him in the water, and me on top of the ice. Eventually the ice broke though and I fell through, resulting in," Mason gestured to his soaked clothes, "all of this. We saw the smoke from the fire and concluded we should come here." Ania nodded, showing she followed. "Either of you remember anything before that?" She asked, hoping her hunch on these two being connected with Ember to be correct. Both of them shook their heads, Mason pointed to Ember, "But, she looks kinda familiar." he said, but turned his attention to Ania, "Nice wings btw, cosplay?"
Ember looked surprised, completely ignoring the wing comment "I literally don't remember anything before I showed up here, man, especially you." Ember help up her hands as if they were white flags.
Ania rubbed her eyes in annoyance, "why me?" she whispered to herself. Ania sat up straight, looking at the sky, "It's getting moderately late, and I need food if I'm going to keep dealing with this." she announced, standing. "Seeing as more of you will probably show up at some point, I can't kick you out just yet. I'm going to a nearby village to find something to eat, you lot can stay here, but no touching anything in my tent or your head comes off." Ania finished, picking up her Axe and started her walk to the village. She could have taken a horse, but she needed as much time away as possible from these Gowpenful-o'-anythings.

By the time Ania returned, it was the dead of night. Her three new cronys had found tents for the night, and were fast asleep. At least now she didn't have to think about their absurdities. Ania settled in her tent, storing the commodities in her personal chest. She took off enough armour to be comfortable, and lay down in her bedroll, ready for some much needed sleep.
Apparently the universe was against her though, as a bright blaze of light cut through her tent walls, blinding her, immediately followed by thunder, a shriek and a thud. Ania didn't move, contemplating if it was worth it to check, eventually deciding it was.
She groaned and sat up, grabbing her Axe, and walked out of her tent. She looked around, ignoring Ember, Adrien, and Mason as they rubbed sleep out of their eyes, grumbling.
Her eyes landed on a body, that was laying on the ground a little bit away, supposedly either dead or unconscious. Ania's new companions came up behind her cautiously. Adrien looked horrified, freaking out about a dead body, Ember started excitedly screaming about it being an alien, whatever that meant, and Mason was just watching the chaos unfold happily.
Ania approached the body, seeing it was a human male, and said so to the others. Ember immediately made a noise of disappointment, and went to sit with Mason a little farther back, pouting.
Ania placed him on his back, the kid looked young, his light strawberry blonde hair falling over his face. He wore a loose red shirt, similar trousers to the rest of them, and the same type of shoes as Mason, along with a necklace holding a bright yellow gemstone. She checked for wounds, and upon seeing none, she put the back of her hand above his mouth, checking for breathing. "He's breathing! Someone grab a blanket, someone else, help me move him to my tent!" Ania commanded, positioning herself to grab his arms while Adrien grabbed his legs.
Together, they dragged him into Ania's tent, resting him on the extra bedroll. Ember came in with the blanket, and Ania covered his body with it, tucking it under his arms and legs as much as she could.
Mason popped his head in after a minute or two, beckoning to Ania. "Alright, you two stay here, come get me if anything changes." Ania said before getting up, meeting Mason outside.
"What is it?" she asked, brushing imaginary dirt off her chest and glancing up at Mason. Mason pointed toward the forest, worry contorting his features, "Thought you might want to see that."
Ania's eyes followed his finger to see a murder of crows flying up from the trees, cawing loudly. Her eyes traveled to the pine trees below, watching as the dark green outlines slowly became black as they became consumed by an ever growing darkness.
"Sard!"